Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check my library for it!
I would suggest probing the discrepancies in these reports before coming back to a mood disorder point of view.
Once a mood disorder is noted, it can be very difficult for a person's health to be properly managed. I was victim to this phenomenon. I was misdiagnosed with a mood disorder without proper evaluation and was tossed around the mental health care system for 14 years with a dozen or so diagnoses. Turned out I have a *physical* health problem that affects the autonomic nervous system. I happened to stumble across it on google, then was lucky enough to convince a doctor to refer me for testing.
Mood is often a product of circumstances and overall health. I can't help interpret what the test scores mean in terms of your child's abilities, but I would suggest there is a good chance that they mean your child's anxiety and affect are only a symptom of the underlying problems that the test discrepancies indicate.
These are all good thoughts. Thank you very much. We are not eager to diagnose a mood disorder. I only wanted to mention them in light of why we decided to do some testing. We have been keeping notes on her various mood struggles over the years, but really only pursued testing for the reading struggles and possible dyslexia. Bipolar does run in our family (three of my siblings, both parents, three aunts, and two grandmothers), so I don't want to be naive that it might affect my children, but my husband and I are absolutely only going to consider an actual mood disorder evaluation as a last result. We will be starting OT for sensory issues and some other stuff over the summer, and I'm hopeful that might improve her mood issues, or at least give us some insight into what's going on with her.
I guess now I'm even more interested to hear what others might have to say about this, because I have no idea what kind of underlying problems could result in either the above discrepancies or her mood issues. We are seeing a psychologist who does CBT, but after 3ish years of therapy, the most consistent thread in our sessions is that (a) DD must have learned these behaviors as a way to get what she wants, and (b) I seem to be doing everything right (every time I bring up a situation, say how I responded, and ask how I should've, the response is usually that that's exactly how the psych would've suggested I respond). It's unclear to me, as of yet, how (a) & (b) can simultaneously be true, since I feel like she couldn't have learned these behaviors if I was doing things right... But that's perhaps a conversation beyond the scope of this current thread.
